The professional zip and unzip tool for Mac — open RAR, 7z, ISO, CAB and more than 20 archive formats, create encrypted archives, and preview what is inside without extracting a single file.
SmartZip for Mac is a full-featured archiver and unarchiver developed by TotalRar specifically for macOS. It handles the two jobs that macOS handles poorly: opening archive formats Apple never licensed, and creating archives with real control over compression, encryption and file size. Where the system Archive Utility gives you a single ZIP format and a hidden progress bar, SmartZip for Mac gives you a browsable archive window, a complete format list, and a set of options that professionals actually use.
The app was introduced as SmartZipper Pro and is still published under the name SmartZip: RAR, 7Z, Zip & Unzip. The Mac edition is what this page covers — SmartZip for Mac. It runs as a normal macOS application: you drag an archive onto it, double-click a file, or use the right-click menu in Finder, and the contents appear in a two-pane window with a file list on the left and a preview pane on the right. From there you can extract everything at once or pick individual files, look inside an archive before unpacking it, and even edit a document and push the edited copy straight back into the archive.
Because everything runs locally, SmartZip for Mac never uploads your documents. That matters if you work with contracts, medical records, source code or any other confidential material — online unzip services require you to hand your files to a third-party server, while SmartZip for Mac keeps the whole operation on your own disk. If you prefer browser-based extraction for one-off, non-sensitive jobs, our free RAR extractor online covers that case, and it also processes files locally in the browser.
SmartZip for Mac works on macOS 10.13 or later and runs on both Intel Macs and Apple silicon models. If you need archive handling inside a full file-management workflow, the companion app Total Manager combines the same extraction engine with an FTP client, a batch renamer, image viewing and media playback.
Every Mac ships with Archive Utility, and for a simple ZIP file made on another Mac it is perfectly adequate. The problems start the moment you receive something else. RAR is proprietary, so macOS will not open it at all — double-clicking a .rar file just produces a generic icon and no result. The same is true for 7z, ISO, CAB, StuffIt, LZMA, MSI, ARJ and PAX. Beyond format support, the built-in tool gives you no compression levels, no AES-256 encryption, no way to add a file to an existing archive, no split volumes, and no chance to look inside an archive before committing gigabytes of disk space to it.
That gap is exactly what a dedicated unzip tool for Mac is for. SmartZip for Mac fills all of it, and it does so with a Finder-friendly interface rather than a command line. If you have ever typed brew install unrar in Terminal just to open a single attachment, SmartZip for Mac removes that step permanently.
| Task | macOS Archive Utility | SmartZip for Mac |
|---|---|---|
| Open ZIP archives | Yes | Yes |
| Open RAR archives | No | Yes |
| Open 7z, ISO, CAB, StuffIt, LZMA, PAX, MSI, ARJ, Z | No | Yes — 20+ formats |
| Create archives beyond ZIP | No | 7z, ZIP, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2 |
| Compression levels | None | Six, from none to maximum |
| AES-256 encryption | No | Yes |
| Preview inside an archive | No | Quick Look, images, hex dump |
| Add or remove files in an existing archive | No | Yes |
| Split a large archive into volumes | No | Yes |
| Finder context-menu shortcuts | Compress only | Extract & compress |
SmartZip for Mac is built around the everyday reality of moving files between Macs, Windows PCs and Linux servers. Here is what each part of the app does.
RAR archives are the single most common reason Mac users go looking for a third-party unarchiver. SmartZip for Mac opens .rar files directly, including multi-volume RAR sets, so you can right-click, extract and move on without installing command-line tools.
Unzip ZIP, RAR, 7z, ISO, CAB, StuffIt, LZMA, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, PAX, MSI, ARJ, Z and their compressed variants. One unarchiver for Mac replaces a folder full of single-format utilities.
Compression works in both directions. Select any files or folders on your Mac and build a new archive in the format your recipient expects — an all-purpose ZIP for Windows users, a compact 7z for long-term storage, or a TAR.GZ for a Linux build.
Choose fastest, fast, normal, high, maximum, or store-only compression. Pick a fast level for a quick transfer and a maximum level for archival backups, without ever leaving the save dialog.
Protect an archive with a password and unbreakable AES-256 encryption. SmartZip for Mac also opens password-protected archives from other platforms, and it can extract different files with different passwords inside the same window — handy when a client sends several encrypted attachments at once.
Select a file inside the archive and use Quick Look to view images, PDFs and documents before you unpack anything. The preview pane also displays media information and a hex dump, so you can confirm you have the right version of a file first.
Add new or updated files to an archive, or remove any file or folder from it, then save. There is no need to unpack a 3 GB archive and rebuild it just to swap out one document.
Open a document from inside the archive, edit it in your usual application, and add the updated version back into the same archive. The screenshot below shows this workflow in detail.
Set a maximum volume size and SmartZip for Mac slices a large archive into numbered parts that fit an email attachment limit, a USB stick or a cloud storage quota. Volumes rejoin automatically when you extract.
Extract with SmartZip for Mac and Compress with SmartZip for Mac appear directly in the Finder right-click menu. You can also drag files straight out of the archive window into any Finder folder to decompress from the list view.
Open several archives at once in separate tabs and browse local folders and archive contents side by side. Copying a file between two archives becomes a single drag.
Use filename filters to hide readme files, hidden dot-files, metadata or anything else you would rather not extract. What stays in the list is what gets written to disk.
These screenshots show the macOS interface of SmartZip for Mac: the archive list view, the built-in viewer, the Finder integration and the save dialog where compression level, split size and encryption are set.
Drag and drop to decompress. Pull files out of the archive list view straight into any Finder window, and add modified files back into the same archive.
Browse images without extracting. The built-in viewer opens photos, slideshows and Quick Look previews directly from inside the archive — plus zoom to fit and full-screen.
Edit files and add them back. Open a document from the archive, change it, and write the updated copy straight back into the archive without unpacking and rebuilding it.
Finder context-menu shortcuts. "Extract with SmartZip for Mac" and "Compress with SmartZip for Mac" sit in the right-click menu of every file, so extraction never requires opening the app.
Hex dump and media information. Inspect binary data and read EXIF, colour model, DPI and camera details for files inside an archive — useful for developers and photographers.
Easy to create an archive. Pick 7z, ZIP, TAR, TGZ, TBZ, GZIP, BZ2 or BZIP2, set split size, and encrypt with a password from one compact save dialog.
Tip: click any screenshot to open the full-size version.
SmartZip for Mac reads more than 20 popular archive formats and their compressed variants, and it writes the five formats most people actually need.
| Format | Best used for | Compression levels |
|---|---|---|
| ZIP | Sending files to Windows and Linux users who expect maximum compatibility | Six, from store-only to maximum |
| 7z | Long-term storage and backups where the smallest possible size matters | Six, from store-only to maximum |
| TAR | Bundling a folder tree while preserving Unix permissions | Store-only, optionally wrapped in GZIP or BZIP2 |
| GZIP | Compressing a single file such as a log or a database dump | Six, from store-only to maximum |
| BZIP2 | Archive bundles where a higher ratio is worth a slower encode | Six, from store-only to maximum |
Extraction takes four steps and no command line. This is the fastest way to open a RAR or 7z file on a Mac.
If you only need a one-off extraction and would rather not install anything, the browser-based free RAR extractor online can open a RAR archive on Mac and Windows without a download. For repeated work with large files, multi-volume sets and encrypted archives, the desktop app is considerably faster.
There are several unzip tools for Mac, and the right choice depends on whether you only open archives or also build them. The table below compares SmartZip for Mac with the tools Mac users most often consider.
| Tool | Creates archives | Encryption | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| SmartZip for Mac | Yes — 7z, ZIP, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2 | AES-256 | Extract and create in one app. Six compression levels, split volumes, in-archive editing, Quick Look previews, hex dump, Finder context menu. |
| macOS Archive Utility | ZIP only | No | Built in and fine for plain ZIP, but cannot open RAR, 7z or ISO and offers no compression options. |
| The Unarchiver | No | No | Excellent free extraction-only tool. Good for opening files, but you still need something else to create them. |
| Keka | Yes | Yes | Strong general-purpose archiver. Drag-and-drop oriented, with a narrower in-app browsing and preview experience. |
| Terminal (unrar / 7z) | Yes | Limited | Free and scriptable, but requires Homebrew, memorised flags and no visual preview of archive contents. |
The practical difference is workflow. Extraction-only utilities solve half the problem: the moment you need to send a folder as a single encrypted file, split a large backup into volumes, or drop one corrected page back into a ZIP you already sent, you are back to the Terminal or to a second application. SmartZip for Mac covers both directions, which is why many users replace two or three older Mac utilities with it.
Designers and photographers receive shoots and assets as layered ZIP or RAR bundles and need to inspect a delivery before copying it onto a working drive. SmartZip for Mac previews JPEG, PNG and RAW files inside the archive, shows EXIF and DPI information, and lets you pull only the selects out of a multi-gigabyte delivery.
Developers and system administrators deal with TAR.GZ, TGZ, BZIP2 and ISO images from Linux and Windows sources. SmartZip for Mac opens all of them without Homebrew, preserves folder structure on extraction, and provides a hex dump view when you need to look at the raw bytes of a file that will not behave.
Office and administrative teams get password-protected ZIP files from banks, insurers and government portals. Because SmartZip for Mac handles encrypted archives and can work with several different passwords in one session, a batch of protected attachments stops being a chore, and split volumes let large document sets move through email limits.
Anyone archiving personal data can pack a folder of family photos, tax records or a full project handover into a single AES-256 encrypted 7z archive and store it on an external drive or in cloud storage. Combined with the file manager in Total Manager, the same engine also handles day-to-day copying, renaming and previewing.
SmartZip for Mac is sold as a one-time purchase with a lifetime license and free updates. There is no monthly fee and no nag screen after you buy. Secure checkout is handled by Stripe, and your license is delivered immediately after payment.
Not sure yet? Download the free trial first. It lets you open, preview and extract every supported format so you can test SmartZip for Mac against your own archives before spending anything.
The current price is shown on the secure Stripe checkout page.
Need setup help or a feature checked before you buy? The SmartZip for Mac help document walks through every dialog, the version history lists what changed in each release, and the support page explains how to reach us if something does not work as expected.
macOS cannot open RAR files with the built-in Archive Utility, so you need an unarchiver such as SmartZip for Mac. Right-click the .rar file in Finder, choose Open With and pick SmartZip for Mac, or drag the archive onto the SmartZip window. The contents appear in a list view, and you can extract everything at once or only the files you need. Multi-volume RAR sets open as a single item when you point the app at the first part.
Yes. SmartZip for Mac extracts more than 20 archive formats, including 7z, ISO, CAB, StuffIt, LZMA, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, PAX, MSI, ARJ and Z. That means you do not need a separate 7z extractor, an ISO utility and a legacy StuffIt tool — one app covers the whole list of formats you are likely to receive.
Yes. SmartZip for Mac opens password-protected archives and creates AES-256 encrypted archives of your own. It also supports extracting different files with different passwords inside the same window, which is useful when several encrypted archives arrive from the same source at once.
Yes. Select any file in the SmartZip window and press Quick Look to preview images, PDFs and documents without unpacking the whole archive. The information panel also shows EXIF and camera data, page dimensions and colour information, and a hex dump view is available for binary files.
SmartZip for Mac handles archives well beyond the 4 GB limit of the built-in ZIP tool, and it can split a large archive into several smaller volumes so the pieces fit within an email attachment limit, a USB stick or a cloud storage quota. The split volumes are recognised and rejoined automatically on extraction.
Yes. SmartZip for Mac revises existing archives: add new or updated files, remove any file or folder, and save the archive again. You do not have to unpack a large archive and rebuild it just to replace one document, and you can edit a file and write the corrected version straight back into the archive.
No. SmartZip for Mac is a one-time purchase with a lifetime license and free updates, so there is no recurring charge. A free trial download is also available so you can test extraction, creation, encryption and splitting before you buy.
SmartZip for Mac requires macOS 10.13 or later and runs on both Intel and Apple silicon Macs, including MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio and Mac Pro.
SmartZip for Mac is a strong alternative because it both extracts and creates archives. Extraction-only tools leave you without compression options, while SmartZip for Mac compresses into 7z, ZIP, TAR, GZIP and BZIP2 at six compression levels, encrypts with AES-256, splits volumes, edits files inside archives and adds Finder context-menu shortcuts.
No. SmartZip for Mac is a desktop application and performs all compression and extraction locally on your Mac, so confidential documents never leave your machine. That makes it a safer choice than browser-based online unzip services for contracts, financial records, medical documents and source code.
Install SmartZip for Mac and open RAR, 7z, ISO, CAB and 20+ other formats in a single click. Create encrypted, split archives your recipients can open anywhere — and never type a Terminal command just to unzip a file again.
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